Star of Texas

Home to restaurants serving 72-ounce steaks, sports venues boasting more than 100,000 seats, and a 55-foot cowboy statue topped by a 95-gallon Stetson hat, America’s second-largest state is a locale where size matters.

Size is relative at Gulfstream Dallas, where midsize aircraft are a big deal. The facility specializes in the Gulfstream G280 and Gulfstream G150, two aircraft that top other business jets in their class in performance, comfort and efficiency. Gulfstream Dallas’ nine-building complex is a one-stop shop featuring a sales and design center for new aircraft, a completions center for midsize aircraft, and a bustling service center popular with Latin American operators as well as those based in the Southwestern United States. A G280 flight-training simulator is located nearby at FlightSafety International’s Dallas center.

“Dallas gives the midsize fleet a place to call home,” says Tim Pannell, a Gulfstream Customer Program manager based in Dallas. “The other sites that do completions all work on our larger aircraft. We enjoy catering to our midsize buyers and operators here.”

Gulfstream Dallas borders Love Field (ICAO: KDAL), a commercial airport but not the area’s main passenger hub, meaning it is easily accessible but far less crowded.

Arriving aircraft land just yards from the facility, and the ramp extends almost to the front door of the Dallas Sales and Design Center. Landing and parking take mere minutes. Unfinished aircraft (known as “green” aircraft because of their color) arriving from the G280 and G150 manufacturing plant roll up ready for completion.

The Dallas Sales and Design Center opened in July 2013 after the G280 entered service in late 2012. Aviation industry insiders and prospective buyers alike realized the desirability of a fast and efficient midsize aircraft that offers the performance and style of a long-range business jet.

Dallas gives the midsize fleet a place to call home.

Gulfstream created the Dallas Sales and Design Center as a showplace for its G280 showpiece. The 9,300-square-foot / 864-square-meter facility has a clean, modern feel. Buyers learn about their cabin interior options in a materials showroom stocked with leather, fabric, carpet and veneer samples, along with other cabin amenities. Completions sales executives and interior designers utilize Gulfstream’s mobile visualization application, DesignBook, to experiment with cabin configurations, colors and fabrics.

The Dallas Sales and Design Center allows for cabin-design capability at the same location where G280s and G150s are being completed, according to Tray Crow, director, Interior Design, Gulfstream.

The opportunity to interface directly with the customer from the very beginning all the way through delivery enhances the customer experience, says Brad Kraft, director of Final Phase Operations, Gulfstream.

“We can entertain prospects who have not yet made an aircraft purchase and also meet with customers during the definition phase to determine their specifications and materials,” Kraft says.

The Gulfstream Dallas Service Center performs maintenance on several hundred aircraft a year. Many of those jets are midsize aircraft, due in part to the connection with the completions center. Yet the service center’s capabilities include every aircraft in the Gulfstream fleet. Gulfstream Dallas has repair station approvals for the United States, European Union, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and Thailand.

Dallas provides an additional comfort level for customers. Love Field is a short drive from the downtown Dallas business district and minutes from upscale shopping in the Highland Park neighborhood.

“Dallas is very popular with midsize aircraft customers from around the world,” Pannell says. “Many know their way around here and they come in and take advantage of the culture and the shopping.”

Dallas provides plenty of big benefits for Gulfstream’s midsize aircraft operators. For them, the Gulfstream facility is the star of Texas.

Surrounded by the stark white walls of an aircraft hangar, the Gulfstream G650, its exterior newly sanded and…

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